Инвестор Peel Group предложил Harworth Group £583 млн за вывод компании с биржи

In an ideal world, companies and their biggest investors sing from the same hymn sheet. Not so at Harworth Group (HWG), whose largest shareholder Peel Group last week ambushed it with a surprise £583mn cash offer, arguing that it could do a better job of running the land developer away from the gaze of the public market. Harworth’s shares popped 20 per cent in response and held on to their gains even after its board rejected the proposal the following day. Its shares had been weak in recent months as investors had fretted that the housebuilding slowdown boded ill for the company, which regenerates brownfield sites to be suitable for development as housing, warehouses or data centres. But Peel’s bid was still a substantial 20 per cent discount to the value of Harworth’s balance sheet, reflecting the ongoing challenge it faces to convince the public market of its worth.